Cleaning compositions for hard surfaces such as floors, windows, dishes, kitchen surfaces, etc. are highly dependent upon the speed of cleaning undesired deposits from the hard surfaces such a grease soils. Microemulsions or protomicroemulsions are known for good grease cleaning, but not known for having good foam profile or foam longevity.
Examples of microemulsion compositions for cleaning hard surfaces include WO9626262, WO9601305, GB 2190681, and EP 316726. Examples of microemulsion or protomicroemulsions used with a foam-generating dispenser include US 2004/0254253 A1, US 2004/0229763A1 and US 2004/0229963A1.
When cleaning compositions are used in direct contact cleaning situations (as opposed to submersion of a hard surface in a diluted cleaning composition) the speed of cleaning or the cleaning kinetics is very important. Any improvement the cleaning kinetics for undesired deposits on hard surfaces, such a grease soils is desired. Therefore there exists a need to improve the speed of the grease cleaning of microemulsion compositions without increasing the cost or complexity of such compositions.
Solvent selection is one aspect that can be optimized to achieve the desired speed of grease cleaning. However, limitations on solvents such as volatility, safety and smell often limit the potential selections of solvents. For example, use of a solvent such a terpineol meets the required volatility and safety requirements, as well as cleaning performance, but gives a very strong pine smell which is unacceptable to some users.
Therefore, there exists a desire to select suitable solvent systems for microemulsion or protomicroemulsion compositions that give the desired speed of grease cleaning, volatility, safety and smell profiles.
It is further desired to deliver such a composition having good foam profile or foam longevity.